TAMPA, Fla. - A South Dakota woman traveled all the way to the Tampa Bay area to cheat on her husband, but she ended up facing criminal charges.
Renee Skoglund filed a false police report that has now landed her in legal hot water.
Prosecutors said Skoglund's trail of lies started on March 8 when she decided to have a one-night stand.
"She had consensual sexual intercourse with an individual in Hillsborough County," prosecutor Jessica Couvertier explained to the court. "Then she felt guilty about it because of her marital status, and she wanted to get checked out for a sexually transmitted disease."
But she wanted to get tested for free. So, she decided to lie again, and called 911.
"I was just raped, like 45 minutes ago," sobbed Skoglund on a recorded call.
Prosecutors said she went on to make up a story about having car trouble on I-75 and pulling over to the side of the road.
False sexual assault allegations are incredibly rare. The much bigger issue is the fact that only a tiny percentage of real assaults are reported. Often because of exactly the kind of rhetoric you're showing here.
Let's not make up for the deficit by casually dismissing ruining innocent people's lives or saying that doing so is not a big deal. What if I tried to justify saying rape is only a tiny percentage of all consensual sexual encounters? If only one is reported and it's your innocent life that ends up being entirely smeared and ruined, how bitter do you feel about it? How empathetic are you to someone that comes forward with allegations in the future?
In support of real victims, I strongly believe that charging the accuser of allegations that end up being without a doubt (only as clear as in this case) proven false, only strongly increases the credibility of real victims who come forward with true accusations. Because it has the power to shut down the evil and toxic attack on the motivations of the people who do come forward. Nobody would speculate someone ever risking prison for "fame and attention" or "revenge on an ex" unless they knew what happened was real and an investigation would not immediately turn up a huge pile of bullshit like it did here. They would be always seen as only just seeking help and support and justice.
If we want to increase the reports of actual assault, we have better ways of empowering victims. We need more robust ways of documenting and investigating true consent. We need law enforcement to protect and stop stigmatizing free, independent sex workers who are the most vulnerable of the whole population to assault than anyone else. We need to encourage people to speak up when it's true and an investigation would very much support that. But you are evil if you think this psychopathic liar of a woman doesn't deserve a long stay in a prison cell.
No they are not rare. Up to 40% according to one study.
What study might that be? All the data I'm finding puts the estimate between 2-10%.
I wouldn't say 10% is rare. Also, that's 10% that were discovered to be false, so I would imagine there's some variation there and these results are probably higher for POC.
Bullshit. I've been falsely accused at least three times, one time actually got the police involved. Thankfully they realized what happened before it could go to trial... (Turned out to be a miscommunication. Family member was overheard by a teacher at her school saying she saw me naked... turned out they never asked the context.. as soon as they realized this was just a case of "walked in on someone while in the shower" the investigation was dropped)
I'm not even a guy, but every guy I know has a story about some girl who claimed something "went down" that didn't or some dumbass calling them a pedo when they were in public with an underage relative.
Hell one of my other false accusations was just me with my younger brother in public... dumbass saw me leading him around and assumed I was up to something.. and not just being a responsible older sister.